Transcript :

English

Manuel: In a normal job, the employee is paid for the amount of time he works and the profits belong to the owner of the business. In this case, no. In this case, we, the owners, are the workers, and the profits are distributed equally.I’m part of the cooperative Roca Mía and we’re dedicated to construction.I live here in the city of Far Rockaway. From what you see from the outside it would seem that everything was already back to normal. But inside, no, no you can see that people still don’t have everything fixed.

Never in my life had I had the opportunity to see so much… destruction.

The church was also converted into a help center for the community. It was also a beautiful time.

Caption: After Hurricane Sandy, relief workers hosted workshops for Rockaway residents interested in starting their own cooperative businesses. A year later, Roca Mía is one of two businesses still running that came out of the program.

Hugo: They came speaking Spanish, speaking like us. Well, different accents, right. But they cared a lot about what was happening here and about the Hispanic community. That was what caught my attention. I had never seen anything like it before.

Manuel: We have weekly meetings to discuss all of our projects and check in on how we’re doing.

Scott: We could try to get the government to give you a contract.

Henry to Son: How was school?
Henry’s Son: Good.

Manuel: We need someone else? Another member of the coop. Not an employee.

Communist Party Headquarters. [laughter]

Tammy: You know, in the wake of a natural disaster, there’s a lot of destruction and a lot of loss and so it’s a moment and an opportunity to rebuild and re-create and the question is what that rebuilding looks like. Is it going to be rebuilt in a way that some people coin ‘disaster capitalism,’ where it’s an opportunity to push out the people who have been there and really gentrify the area? Or is it going to be rebuilt in a way that creates wealth and ownership for the people in the Rockaways?

Caption: The program is now holding its second round of workshops to incubate new co-ops.

Workshop Facilitator: We want to do a role-play with you.

Workshop Facilitator: Anyone want to volunteer?
Volunteer: How much more are you going to pay me?
-I’m only going to pay your normal salary.
-No overtime?
-No overtime.
-It’s no good.

Manuel: This is a new economic vision. It’s not that those on the top are going to be brought down, but that those on the bottom are going to rise up.

Español

Manuel: En un trabajo normal, el empleado le pagan por su tiempo de trabajo y las ganancias quedan con el dueño del negocio. En este caso, no. En este caso, los dueños somos trabajadores ya las ganancias se reparten equitativamente.

Soy parte de la cooperativa Roca Mía y estamos dedicados a la construcción.

Vivo acá en la ciudad de Far Rockaway. Por lo que se ve por afuera, pareciera que ya todo á como normal. Pero más sin embargo, adentro, no, no, la gente todavía no tiene todo listo.

Nunca en mi vida había tenido la oportunidad de ver tanta… destrucción.

También fue una etapa bonita. La iglesia se convirtió en un centro de ayuda para la comunidad.

A través de Occupy Sandy, vinieron The Working World con esta visión de impulsar la economía y reconstruir lo que el huracán dañó.

Hugo: Vinieron hablando español, hablando como nosotros. Bueno, diferentes accentos. Pero, como que les importó mucho lo que estaba pasando aquí con la comunidad Hispana. Eso es lo que me llamó la atención. No lo había visto antes.

Manuel: Tenemos reuniones semanales para discutir siempre los proyectos, para ver cómo vamos caminando.

Scott: Podríamos presionar al gobierno para que les den un contrato.

Henry a su hijo: ¿Cómo fue la escuela?
Hijo de Henry: Bien.

Manuel: ¿Necesitamos a alguien? Un miembro más de la cooperativa. No es un empleado.

Sede del Partido Comunista. [risas]

Tammy: Sabes, después de un desastre natural, hay mucha destrucción y mucho perdido, así que es un momento y una oportunidad para reconstruir y re-crear y la pregunta es, ¿cómo parece esa reconstrucción? ¿Va a estar reconstruido en una manera que algunos llaman ‘el capitalismo de desastre’? ¿O va a estar reconstruido en una manera que crea riqueza y propiedad para la gente de los Rockaways?

Caption: El programa ya está en su segunda ronda de talleres para incubar nuevas cooperativas.

Workshop Facilitator: Queremos hacer una actuación.

Workshop Facilitator: ¿Alguien quiere ser voluntario?
Volunteer: ¿Cuánto más se va a pagar?
-Sólo te voy a pagar tu salario normal.
-No overtime?
-No overtime.
-Está mal.

Manuel: Este es una nueva visión económica. No es que los de arriba van a venir para abajo, sino que los de abajo van a venir para arriba.

Call it “Disaster Socialism.”

In the destruction and debris that Hurricane Sandy left along the urban beachfront communities of the Rockaway Peninsula, some relief workers saw an opportunity for local residents to profit. WORCS, or Worker Owned Rockaway Cooperatives, was conceived by members of Occupy Sandy, an organization that sprang from the Occupy movement and began setting up relief centers in areas affected by the storm as soon as the waves ebbed back into the Atlantic. One such hub was based in a makeshift church on Cornaga Avenue where the future members of the cooperative construction company Roca Mía prayed together every Sunday.

After the storm wiped out his heat and electricity, Manuel Escobar, a founding member of Roca Mía, spent 15 days living in the basement of Cornaga Church with his wife and two daughters, one of whom was just a few weeks old at the time.

Occupy Sandy volunteers from around the city worked closely with residents like Escobar to revive the Rockaways, adamantly calling their efforts “mutual aid,” not charity. They soon became familiar with the issues that plagued the peninsula’s working class neighborhoods before the storm. Unlike most parts of the city, for instance, the Rockaways suffer from a lack of restaurants and other services, which contributes to high rates of unemployment.

Economic opportunity was part of what had motivated Escobar to move to the U.S. from El Salvador two years prior. “I had heard that it was a good place to work and to grow economically,” he said.

Upon landing in the Rockaways, Escobar bounced between construction and other odd jobs, but always had the idea in the back of his mind that he could start his own business.

In the Spring of 2013, he got his chance.

Occupy Sandy members teamed up with The Working World, a non-profit incubator for cooperative businesses, to create a 12-week crash course for local residents with entrepreneurial aspirations. Participants from a wide range of backgrounds came with a flurry of ideas and eventually coalesced into five groups with five separate visions: an entertainment collective, a health food store, a pupusería, a bakery and a construction company.

After a year of growing pains, only the bakery and the construction company remain. But now that WORCS is in its second round of workshops, the Rockaways may soon be home to a worker-owned laundromat, juice bar and cab company, too.